https://thenib.com/the-good-war?id=mike-dawson
Via Muse, who wrote:
The 2018-2019 Federal budget does not include any new cuts to the arts council
funding, though that damage was done when in 2015 $105 million dollars was
removed from the already small arts granting budget and the remaining budget
was earmarked for only large artistic institutions like the Sydney Symphony
Orchestra.
Now the government magically has: $13 million to spend on preservation of
documents at the Australian War Memorial and is considering a $500 million
redevelopment plan for that memorial.
Australia’s defense spending is expected to increase by over 80 percent — from
$32.4 billion in fiscal year 2016-17 to $58.7 billion in 2025-26 — over the
next decade. Australia will spend approximately $200 billion over the next ten
years under the Integrated Investment Program on new military hardware.
In 2015 Australian historian Dr Val Noone gave a speech during the ANZAC
Centenary commemorations about how the documents at the Australian War Memorial
were being sanitised. Historians were to digitise some documents, but those
documents that didn't paint a pretty picture of war, those that showed soliders
who came back from war with parts of their face missing or described their
struggles with emotional damage and more, were to be destroyed. Think about
that. Think about what anyone in the future will ever be able to understand
about WW1 when the documents have been carefully curated to paint only a heroic
picture. "Lest we forget" indeed.
Some sources for numbers:
<
https://www.businessinsider.com.au/federal-budget-2018-interesting-surprising-measures-2018-5>
<
https://www.canberratimes.com.au/national/act/massive-australian-war-memorial-redevelopment-could-cost-500-million-20180407-h0ygoa.html>
<
https://katherinephelps.com/2015/08/protect-the-arts-now/>
<
https://thediplomat.com/2017/05/australia-to-increase-defense-budget/>
<
http://religionsforpeaceaustralia.org.au/2015/03/11/peace-in-australia-the-untold-story/>
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://www.xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
http://www.glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
http://www.sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
